Are you magnetic
by K' the panther
Summary: My collection of all sorts of bleach drabbles. Set mostly before the Winter War.
1. Are you magnetic

**Characters/pairings: Ichigoxrenji**

**Disclaimer: i don't own bleach or the song.**

**Set before the Winter War, while Renji stayed at Urahara's, because I'm not up to date with the manga.**

**A/N: ****I've got a few drabbles/short stories lying around, with various pairings and stuff, so I'll probably be updating soon. I might leave this as an individual story and post them apart, though... not sure...**

**Surprise surprise! It's yaoi again! Don't worry, het lovers out there, i can also do gen and het. No seriously.**

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><p><strong>Are you magnetic<strong>

Ichigo can hold his alcohol. Never mind the fact that he has gone drinking about twice in his life before tonight. He has seen his father down shot after shot in the dark, quiet nights when he thinks the kids are asleep, and he knows it takes quite a few before Isshin breaks down and starts to sob at Masaki's poster. And this is a genetic kind of thing, right? Right.

So he doesn't blame his dizziness, nor his sudden sentimentality, or the way his permanent frown has disappeared—and he doesn't miss it— on the cheap booze. It's only when he finds himself on the roof, lying next to Renji with his arms behind his head and meditating the potential of that crimson mane as a weapon of mass seduction ('cuz it's all on fire, y'know, and kinda matches the tats), that he starts to suspect he may be slightly tipsy.

On the other hand, if Renji says he can hold his alcohol, he knows he speaks the truth. He's been out often enough with the other guys back in Soul Society. He also knows how much to drink depending on the effect he wants. So when Ichigo turns on his side and dreamily whispers:

"If your world just tipped and spun around, and flipped and flung us from it, I think we'd land in exactly the same way," Renji just knows it's not the booze. He hasn't had anywhere near enough to cause that kind of hallucination. He frowns. He's sure he's heard the phrase before.

And it's a stupid line; it has to be the stupidest pick-up line ever. It doesn't even sound like one. Hell, he only realizes it's meant to be a pick-up line because Ichigo's looking at him with those pleading, ridiculously _focused_ eyes, and his hand is wriggling towards Renji like a lost puppy. He has never kicked a puppy, and he can see all Ichigo needs is a quiet 'yeah'. But he will be kicking _himself_ if he says that, because the kid is dead drunk and doesn't know what he's doing and probably won't remember any of this in the morning. Unlike Renji.

Then Ichigo's hand reaches his knee, and he repeats the would-be-pickup-line.

It's a bad line, Renji decides. A disastrous line. And in a twisted way it's also good, or he's disastrous, because he decides Ichigo is lucid enough and just starts to lean in.

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><p><strong>Title came from the song by faker, with the same name. Ichigo's line came from there too, apologies if it sounds a bit... out of context.<strong>

**Please R&R!**


	2. You and I

**Characters/pairings: ginxtousen (no idea where that came from)**

**Warning: yaoi implications**

**Again, set before the Winter War.**

**Yay, only 342 words! I'm starting to get the hang of this 'drabbles' thing.**

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><p><strong>You and I<strong>

Our only bond is a ruthless man. He is the chain-link between us; he drove us together without doing a thing. He knows— knows it all, although he is never there in those white-hot ice-cold nights. But his presence hangs over the headboard, always him, always watching. Perhaps it thrills us. Danger, screams, salvation, he is everything to us. I know my— colleague likes the feeling, my body and the thought of this man combining into a twisted fantasy in his head. After flight and Las Noches came the desire, the need, the homesickness even, and we fell together like pieces of different puzzles. Then it happened again, again, again until we knew we were trapped. No complaints, no regrets, no pretty words; we come back every night knowing what we search for. Not what we want.

What are we even to each other? Not dependence, not trust, not peace or balance. Just two ice-tailed comets orbiting separate satellites. I was lost, I found him, I'm still lost.

Our only point in common is blindness. He cannot see the utter wrongness, the stupidity of… us, and I refuse to look. He cannot see how he ties himself to that other someone each time we connect; he keeps his singsong voice and plays hide-and-seek with his own feelings. I cannot see him, couldn't even if the light was on, and it is the only time I am glad of my… handicap. And then I am blind because I don't care, don't feel, but some part of me still searches for light inside this shadow of a man.

We're both playing some sort of madness. We settle for cheap substitutes. Gin wants Aizen. I want—I don't know who I want. All I'm certain of, when the brief escape is over and we sprawl again separated and panting and _frustrated_, is that I want anyone but the man who lies beside me.


	3. Schoolboy nightmare

**Sorry for the delay. I've had writer's block lately, and this was the only thing that came out.**

**Summary: Kira reflects on his captain. Set before SS arc.**

**Disclaimer: the usual.**

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><p><strong>Schoolboy nightmare<strong>

Oh, he remembered _her_ as if it were yesterday.

Yesterday that he had been running through the hall, screaming with glee, only to slow to a reverent walk when he noticed _her_.

Yesterday that he had looked away, pretending to fiddle with his hair, every time he passed _her_.

Yesterday that he had ducked, because he was small and _she_ lived on a pedestal, to avoid _her_ frozen stares.

And today _she_ stood, in that same pedestal, in a corner of his mind. A little blurry behind the mists of time, slightly distorted by myth, but with the same black marble skin and mind-raking eyes.

When he met Ichimaru Gin, Kira was reminded of _her_.

Of course, he wasn't _like_ her— he didn't have _her_ body's snapshot passion, dancing a deadly flamenco, the one which always clashed with _her_ dead face. _She_ didn't have his smiling menace or his fox-like fluidity. He had always felt, however, like _she_ was watching him. Like _she_ would one day calmly step down from _her_ pedestal in order to choke him sweetly, coldly, and he would be a wide-eyed lamb in _her_ hands. _She_ would turn those terrifying eyes on him and hold out _her_ hand and Kira would give, give _her_ everything without a word. That was all _her_, all _she_ was, clawed schoolboy nightmare. And so was Gin—no.

He kept quiet.

He always told himself that those weren't, _could_ not be, the reasons why Ichimaru Gin was like the lady statue in his corridor.


	4. Shadow

**Yay it's gen again!**

**Summary: it was hard getting over her betrayal. It was harder to take her place.**

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><p><strong>Shadow<strong>

Soi Fong lived in frustration.

It was a nagging little thing, most of the time. It said_ you're not as good as her, not as smart or strong and nowhere as charming. You will never be as respected as her; you'll never be able to replace her._ Most of the time it just whispered at the back of her head, where she could comfortably ignore it.

But there were times—when some subordinate muttered that Yoruichi-sama was never this strict, or she remembered that last battle against her idol—when something raw uncoiled in her stomach and tore at her throat. Times when, were it not for her impeccable self-control, she would have punched a wall or burst into screaming tears. She was reminded—painfully so—that she still lived in Yoruichi's shadow. Soi Fong had lost against her. She trained relentlessly, cursed that woman's name at night, did everything she could to remind herself that she hated Yoruichi. She disciplined her division, because she did not want to do everything the same way as that woman. She worked on new forms of melee combat, new attacks and strategies, because she wanted to do things her own way. She used her frustration to push her on.

She felt so damn stupid when she thought that she had once admired Yoruichi. Once all she trained for was to get closer to her goddess, to sink further into her shadow. Once, much like Zaraki's subordinates, she had hidden her own progress to avoid promotion, because being the 2nd division lieutenant was all she could wish for. She had been so naïve making someone the centre of her world, when the only one she could trust was herself. Now she knew better; now she only trained to get rid of Yoruichi's ghost, to outshine her former mentor.

Never mind that her ex-captain had proved last time that there was nothing Soi Fong could do that Yoruichi hadn't done before. Never mind that the captain of the second division still felt something jump inside her every time she saw a black cat. Never mind that a small part of her agreed every time she heard a compliment towards Yoruichi, or a complaint that 'Shihouin-sama would have done it better'. The time for hero worship was over, and now Soi Fong had to stop that nonsense and get on with improving herself and her division.

Never mind that, for different reasons now, Yoruichi was still the why and wherefore of her efforts to improve.

All she could strive for now was escaping her former idol's shadow.


End file.
